Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Happy Postsnap Christmas!

I hate Christmas cards. Not receiving them obviously- although I have yet to find an efficient and attractive way to display them without them being dust gatherers, a fire hazard or so attractive to my mad kittens that they constantly end up on the floor along with my ornaments and the curtains.

No I hate them for a number of reasons which I will list here:

1. I find choosing them traumatic. The packet says "contains four designs" but I only generally like three of the designs. So you give the ones with the dodgy picture to the neighbours you only wave at when you are defrosting the car windscreen. But still feel guilty!

Then there's the special ones - for close relatives and those "across the miles" which all cost a packet but have to be purchased for political reasons. (family politics eh!). Glitter or ribbons? Long verse or short sentiment. Will I be judged on my choice?

2. Writing them. One of the less pleasant things about having seven children is you have to write all their names out in cards. Which means hand cramps, boredom and occasionally (she looks round guiltily) accidentally leaving one of their names off by mistake.

Yes I could do the "and family" thing but it screams "can't be bothered" to me so year after year I scrawl our names with ever decreasing neatness.

3. Posting them. Cost and effort. 'Nuff said. I still have cards from last year in my car boot which I *forgot* to post.

Now I could copy friends who send out emails saying they are donating to charity instead of sending cards. (Are they?) Or send greetings via email, Facebook or in 140 characters. But there is something rather nice about the "flumping" of cards on the mat when the postie calls.

So what's the alternative? Well I had lots of fun making Postsnap postcards earlier this year -my son particularly loved the one I sent of him as a small child in his church chorister robes to his girlfriend- and have just found out you can make cards, including Christmas cards too using their clever app.

This seemed like a great idea combining personalisation of my cards with minimum effort including sending them since Postsnap does that bit for you.

But what picture should we choose for our family cards I pondered? Well the nativity story is central to our Christmas celebrations but Grumpy is a bit big now to cram into a manger and I'm not sure I would pass as the Virgin Mary so we decided on a family group round the tree.

The children were very excited at the chance to wear Christmas jumpers and put the tree up - in November. And DH was thrilled when I showed him what I wanted him to wear. Not that I don't love his handsome face but just could not resist buying this hat (proceeds from which go to food banks)

Sadly our eldest couldn't be in the picture as he lives over 100 miles away and our second eldest point-blank refused to don any sort of festive hat or jumper so we let him take the photograph.

Step two was choosing a template from the Postsnap app - I used the app on my iPhone (there is also an Android app) and all I had to do was slide across to "tap to create a greeting card" then scroll down admiring the choices for just about every occasion until I got to the festive choices.

I chose a design I liked, tapped again to add my photo from my camera roll then had fun fiddling with different typeface styles and text and design colours until the card was well and truly customised. I even changed the message on the front to include our family name!

screenshot from app withthe design I chose.

Then all I had to do was write it typing a personal message inside. More playing with a variety of typefaces and colours and then I added the recipient's name and address. You can access contacts and create a Postsnap contacts book or just type in each address manually.

Postsnap will either post the card direct to your recipient or you can choose for them to send you the card with a spare blank envelope - I chose this option for my sister in law who lives locally as I like to deliver it in person and spend some time chatting over a cuppa.

Mostly however I chose to have Postsnap post my cards for me. Delivery is free to addresses in the UK and are amazingly economical if you have friends or family overseas-as we speak my personalised cards are winging their way to Germany and Cyprus with card and postage totalling just £3.25 each card.

You get discounts for bulk orders and it was easy to do lots of cards just by changing the words inside and on the front if wished. So it's easy to make a "Dear Brother" card or change the colours if the patterns or text. So for instance when I was making cards for my aunt and cousin who are likely to see each other's cards from me in each other's homes I made a slightly different card. You can of course make completely different designs but I really liked the one I chose so I just adapted it.

I really enjoyed creating my unique cards but the biggest benefit to using Postsnap really was that I didn't have to struggle round a crowded card stand in a hot shop, queue up to pay and then come home and write the things.

Instead I relaxed with a cuppa in front of a roaring log fire and created the whole lot whilst half watching "I'm a Celebrity" and sent them all without moving from my comfy chair.

The picture we used for our Postsnap Christmas cards.

Unlike a trip to the shops and then post office which would have used petrol and shoe leather and taken a couple of days the whole thing took an hour or so hour leaving more time for consuming mince pies and chocolate log.

Have a Happy

Card Creating Christmas!

Disclaimer: My Postsnap account was credited with prepay credit and I was given funds to buy Christmas props so I could make lovely Christmas cards for this honest review. Views and opinions remain my own.

About Me

This UK-based mad mum of 7 shares the highs and lows of life parenting, feeding, entertaining and travelling with her husband of 25 years and their larger than average family. (although three of the children have grown up & left home now!)

Strong focus on food, cooking & eating out, parenting a child with ASD (autism) and anything to do with family life.